One day remains until the most significant primary election in Northeastern Pennsylvania history.
Let me know if you know of another more significant primary.
But until you do, I’ll argue that the ongoing federal public corruption probe that’s going gangbusters in Luzerne and Lackawanna counties makes tomorrow’s candidate selection more important than any previous nominee choices.
In Luzerne County, 17 judicial candidates are fighting for two spots on the county bench while two former Luzerne County president judges prepare for a new life in a federal penitentiary.
Loads of small town mayors, dozens of school board candidates and council members, a handful of county row officers, and others are lined up and on the ballot.
And twenty candidates want to serve on a study commission to determine the shape of county government to come. If voters reject the idea of home rule in a ballot question, those candidates no longer matter. But it looks like the home rule question will pass and 11 of those candidates will shape the study commission.
In Lackawanna County, challenger Gary DiBileo and incumbent Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty each wants the Democratic nomination to run against the Republican mayoral nominee in November. Doherty even wants to be the Republican nominee and is mounting a write-in campaign just in case he loses his party’s nomination to DiBileo the way he lost the local party endorsement to him.
Four judicial candidates want the single new judgeship that will be available in Lackawanna County in January. All are cross-filed. The race could wrap up if one candidate wins both nominations. Or, a wild November general election race could ensue.
That race is so tight that candidate Jim Tierney has sent mailers to voters featuring a big photograph of Barack Obama as a smiling enticement to choose Tierney. The pitch is a manipulative and tawdry attempt to portray Tierney as something more than what he is.
In that judicial race, candidate Margaret Bisignani Moyle is the perfect choice for either party. Moyle has more trial experience than the other three candidates put together.
The race for three open Scranton City Council seats looks more and more like a drunken bar fight. And longtime incumbent Lackawanna County Sheriff John Syzmanski running for re-election makes Mayberry Deputy Barney Fife look like Kojak. Other offices need a karate expert to settle the score – one reason I’m voting for martial arts expert Bill Courtright for city tax collector.
Despite the white-hot glare of the campaigns, though, the most important player in all these races is the individual voter. Without a solid voter turnout, the best candidates might fall. Without significant citizen participation, the worst might prove victorious.
So what else is new?
The chance to change the harsh political landscape in hard coal country makes tomorrow’s election super significant.
As a Scranton resident of Lackawanna County, I want real change. I want a new mayor and a new sheriff. I want City Council dissolved and taken over by the National Guard. I want real government for all the people – not just the beautiful people of Scranton and Clarks Summit who are too often too hip for their own good.
Gary DiBileo deserves a chance to serve as mayor. I’ll take anybody but Syzmanski for sheriff. And Scranton City Council would run better with a high school student council making the decisions.
In Luzerne County, where I lived for 17 years - longer than I lived anywhere in my life - I want home rule and two women judges.
I’ll take community activist Walter Griffith for controller.
Either Carolee Medico or Walter Mitchell would do fine in the prothonotary’s office.
Mostly, though, I want something in Luzerne and Lackawanna counties that does not appear on ballots in either county.
I want dozens of federal law enforcement agents and prosecutors to set up a U.S. Justice Department task force in both counties and continue the ongoing corruption investigation that has hurt taxpayers in Northeastern Pennsylvania for generations.
Some of the candidates have ties to that corruption. Remember, you don’t have to be a criminal to be corrupt. Simple two-faced dishonesty corrupts as much as a suitcase full of kickbacks.
Some of the candidates simply do not deserve any consideration from voters. Some candidates are shameless hustlers who try their best to fool all of the people all of the time. Some candidates are so self-absorbed that they forget that public service is the sole purpose of an elected official.
In one form or another, a big piece of the public trust will live or die tomorrow.
E-Mail Story
Print Story
